Self-Containment

So here we are in the middle of a pandemic as the coronavirus spreads to every corner of the world. Schools and libraries are closed. Grocery stores are out of supplies. The Olympics postponed. The last primaries cancelled. The streets and roads are empty of traffic and people. Some will get sick and survive; some will get sick, get worse, and die. It's survival of the fittest. Or the smartest. Or the most informed.

I usually use this illustration to represent perfumed pollution.
Today it's the coronavirus!

As someone who is chemically sensitive, self-containment is my existence. I'm constantly isolated in my home, avoiding public recreation as much as possible, shopping during low volume times, and running for my life in the opposite direction from any toxic person, place or thing. This isolation can be soul-sucking and unbearable, but most of the time it's normal and natural. I often resent the extra effort and energy all this paranoia demands in order to keep myself from being exposed and suffering from mild to debilitating symptoms.

My friends keep telling me how safe I am from virus contamination since I'm already a practitioner of self-containment. I appreciate their encouragement, but truthfully after years of personal isolation and no one else giving a shit, I really like it that everyone else is now, finally, in a similar situation. Instead of being alone, I feel a sense of solidarity now that others are experiencing the discomfort of my everyday life experience. I love it. Welcome to my world!

Friends say, "I have gloves for you if you need them!" I say, No! I have boxes of gloves. I use them for every day protection! I've had friends ask me if I need a mask. I say, No! I use masks all the time for every day tasks! This is my normal life. Come on in! Join the fun! Now if a virus wasn't rampaging across the globe causing suffering and death, I wouldn't have a problem with this new/old lifestyle.

We can't seem to get good information on the coronavirus. One day they tell us we have to wear masks and the stores are sold out. The next day they tell us don't bother - they don't work. Then they tell us if we are sick we should wear them if we are out in public. But, sick or not, we shouldn't be out in public. Besides masks don't work. Right?

Oh no! Dogs are dying from coronavirus. Oh look! Dogs can't get coronavirus after all. Well, maybe, the CDC says stay away from your pets if you get sick because they really have no idea. At least they are honest about it. Dogs should be getting it. Like humans, they have overpopulated the earth and nature needs to balance.

If you drink bleach, it will keep you from getting coronavirus. Thanks Presidunce Dump for being so knowledgeable! Actually this is partially correct because you'll be too dead to get infected. The really bad information coming from the White House is appalling and irresponsible.

If you sneeze once, it's the coronavirus, but if you sneeze multiple times it's not. Now they are saying sneezing isn't a symptom. Presidunce Dump just sent me a postcard on guidelines and he says if I cough or sneeze to do it in my elbow so someone thinks it's a symptom!

One day all the hand sanitizers are sold out, but the following day they say proper hand washing is better. Yesterday vinegar worked as a hand sanitizer; today it doesn't. I see everyone attempting home-made hand sanitizers with alcohol....but the strength should be at least 60%, ah no, 70%...hmmm...90%. And if they put a dab of another ingredient it will absolutely still sanitize ...maybe ...possibly ...because that dab will reduce it to 70%... Or 60%. Exactly. They know this for sure. Yeah, right. Even now, the CDC says 70% and my state's website says 60%.

Some believe this isn't any worse than the flu; others say it is worse than a flu. Some say it is a flu; others say don't make the mistake of thinking it's the flu. Some say we have it under control; others say this is only the beginning. Some say this is biological warfare; others think this is just natural selection and evolution to balance the overpopulation of humans. I haven't yet heard any religious theories. Yet. Maybe this is like Noah's Arc and we are all screwed? UPDATE: The religious are linking this to Jesus's second coming. Does that mean those who die get to go to heaven, or is it the ones who live? No one is clear on that point.

Bottom line, not one fucking person knows what the hell is going on. Am I worried? Only about all the people pretending to know what is going on and giving everyone either, 1) false hope or 2) a panic attack. The best advice I've received so far is from Girl Alive over in Malaysia who told me weeks ago, "GO STOCK UP ON FOOD AND SUPPLIES NOW!" She was convinced our grocery shelves would be sold out like they are in Malaysia. She was right. Our county is totally out of toilet paper right now!

Am I worried? I'm so confused I can't decide. I fall in a middle ground. Maybe? I think.... Some days I feel confident I might actually live to see summer. Then I read the psychic Sylvia Browne predicted this years ago and it's supposed to wipe out most of the population. It's hard to know what to feel when no one has any idea who is susceptible and who isn't. Why are so many recovering and why are too many dying? There must be some link.

First, I am of a certain age that makes me vulnerable, but in past medical tests I have been diagnosed as biologically twenty years younger than I actually am. I blame that on a whole lot of healthy living. I have never smoked cigarettes, no recreational drugs, avoided pharmaceuticals, and rarely drank alcohol of any kind. I have exercised in some form or another all my life. My diet for the last ten years has been outstandingly healthy and for the last lifetime has been relatively, comparatively good. I know eating sugar depletes one's nutritional resources and compromises one's immune system. I don't eat sugar. Eating all kinds of junk should kill even the healthiest of person let alone someone infected by the virus. I don't eat junk food. Will my healthy lifestyle keep me safe or make me vulnerable?

I also have an autoimmune disease. One of the symptoms of Hashimoto's is pericardial effusion...my heart is water logged. Every now and then I am reminded of this with chest and lung pains. My thyroid is susceptible to attacks from my body. Will the virus attack my weakest organs making me more vulnerable?

I have allergies to pollen: trees, grass, hay. This can feel nearly as uncomfortable as virus symptoms. The coronavirus is a respiratory illness that starts and ends in the lungs. A chemical exposure can stop my lungs from working in a heartbeat. Will this make me more vulnerable?

I am also chemically sensitive. Surprise! I'm not going to be dipping my hands in cancer-causing, hormone-disrupting, immune-weakening hand sanitizers nor wipe down my grocery cart with these toxins posted at every building entrance. I'm not going to wash every surface in my house with bleach or alcohol. Will this make me more vulnerable or has my avoidance of chemicals helped strengthen my immune system? FYI: I am using vinegar to sanitize my hands. I wash my hands a lot anyway. I've been adding hydrogen peroxide to hot soapy water when I wash surfaces, but only because it makes me feel better not because I think it works. It dilutes the strength too much, I think. I can't breathe around alcohol. This may be my undoing, but there isn't anything I can do.

Last, but not least, I am chemically sensitive. I hold the hope of the one benefit I have been blessed with for being chemically sensitive: my immune system is hyperactive. I have not gotten sick with anything in the last nineteen years. No colds, flus, viruses, earaches, or sore throats. There have been times I've been surrounded by sickos suffering from the latest illness, coughing, sneezing, puffy eyes telling me to stay away. I have never gotten sick. My white blood count is good. My immune system works and works well. Will this spare me?

I have no idea...time will tell.

The Women's March was exactly two weeks ago. I didn't catch anything then or I'd be showing symptoms by now. Relatives from the local virus vortex dropped in for a visit before everyone started panicking. That was three weeks ago. Hmmm...I feel fine.

We'll see. Until then I'm just going to continue being my chemically sensitive self-containment self and laugh at the people panicking around me as I sit in my house surrounded by lots of toilet paper!*


*Note: No, I'm not a toilet paper hoarder. I bought mine last fall when I cancelled my membership to Costco. Who would have guessed it would come in handy...

Women's March 2020

Hmmm...the Women's March. Sorry to say the momentum is waning and infrastructure is crumbling. Now it is reasonable to assume and anticipate the number of protests would diminish due to utter exhaustion or disinterest because Trump's bad behavior has become so prevalent and normalized. The first year of his presidency there were protests practically every week. Last year I think there were three.

However, women's issues persist. Sexism and patriarchy continue. The president is still a rapist so I am very disappointed the Women's March has become challenging. I live in one of the most liberal states in the country. This shouldn't be happening, but it is human nature. We get tired of fighting all the time.

The first indication of falter was the town where I normally go for all protests including the nationally-promoted Women's March decided not to have it this year. Their public announcement stated this decision was due to how time-consuming and expensive it had become. Granted, they hold an hour's worth of rallies featuring speakers I doubt are free, they provide a shopping mall of non-profit booths and food options at the end of the march, supply toilets, buy licenses to block streets,  police escort, and I'm sure cleaning up after nasty women who might not be very clean is a hellish job for a small group of people. I still wondered how hard can it be with free advertising to gather a group of people together and just walk without all the extras? Later I heard the organization's infighting had gotten out of control. So the march for this small-ish town dwindled from 10,000 the first year to zero this year.

So we planned to travel a distance to the nearest city to participate in their march. We always considered how fun it might be to go to one of the huge marches. I immediately noticed something was wrong - no one seemed to know what time it started. One newspaper said one time, another website said another, and even the Facebook page couldn't get it right. I finally begged someone for information stating we were driving three hours to get there. If we get the time wrong we might miss the whole thing! After that was worked out, two days before the march it's cancelled! Someone was worried about weather. Really? Our winters are so mild, but if the east coast can march why can't we? People were not happy and some of them voiced their complains with photos of New York marchers marching in a snow storm.

I ended up driving alone in the opposite direction for an hour to a very small town holding a march. My protest buddy was unable to attend or rather, more than likely didn't want to drive two hours for a tiny march in a tiny town. I was determined not to miss it not knowing if other options would present themselves. It was a small, but enthusiastic group of people with no social boundaries. Ready for the weather, I had my pink women's umbrella. (No photos - I forgot my camera.)  Then it started raining. No, pouring! Without warning, several people squeezed under my umbrella with me without even asking. WHOA!  If I wasn't chemically sensitive I probably wouldn't have cared, but for someone with huge personal space boundaries I found it outrageously presumptive. I wanted to scream If you want to use my umbrella then you should fucking buy it!  I didn't.

I remained calm and persisted. The march started and I left the freeloaders behind. We marched with traffic which seems to indicate poor planning. People complained no one could see our signs if the cars were coming up behind us. My breaking point was the woman with the incredibly large dog she let shit on the sidewalk, didn't clean it up, and protesters marched right through it. No one could see it before stepping in it! Although I appreciate they even had a march, I couldn't wait to leave. I did appreciate the simplicity of the day without an organized rally and devoid of commercialized non-profit booths.

Disappointed in our state's options for women's marches, we planned to go to another big city in a neighboring state for theirs. They didn't even bother to have it on the actual day of the national Women's March. Isn't this supposed to be about solidarity? Instead it was held on March 1st or closer to International Women's Day. I took my voting-themed umbrellas:

The day started cloudy and overcast, but by the time of the march it was gloriously sunny! We wore our pussy hats and the protest umbrellas garnered attention and photo ops. There definitely was a different feel to this group. The protest signs were more defiant. People didn't seem as friendly. We must be in the city. Then we started hearing about their group's infighting. It seems African American women were offended that white women were organizing it. Transsexuals were offended by pussy hats and the previous year's it was announced pussy hats were no longer going to be allowed. Oops. I took the stance if anyone messes with my pussy hat they'll get their eyes scratched out and probably hit over the head with my umbrella. We were on edge which is probably not good in a big protest group. Now I know why this city has so many riots...

But no one announced any bans on pussy hats and although the protesters were mostly hat-less, there were quite a few with pink ears on their heads. Probably out of towners like ourselves. There was a protest llama...now that's different!

We hid painted rocks all over:

No one bought any of my umbrellas, but I did see another umbrella - a white umbrella with felt pen lettering nearly the exact same quotes I use. The artists probably thought I would never show up this far away. Just after I spotted her, she disappeared...hmmmm...I would have loved to have talked to her or at least taken a photo of her umbrella. They say imitation is the best form of flattery, but some view it as theft or plagiarism in fear of copyright laws. Heck, I stole the quotes I put on my umbrella so I can hardly criticize someone for being inspired by my umbrella idea! I had always looked forward to seeing other umbrellas that might have been clearly inspired by mine. I rarely do. I regret not chasing after her to congratulate her, but she disappeared quickly and I never saw her again.

It was a good day. The march through downtown was well-organized with a lot of police escort. Hopefully after November we won't have to have anymore OR maybe after November everyone will regain their motivation and stop fighting among each other. We all seem to be complaining too much. We are all so tired! Welcome to Trumpism.